M+R report: One time vs. monthly online donations

M+R Strategic Services recently published their 2012 eNonprofit Benchmarks study. (M+R stands for Arthur Malkin and Donald Ross, the founders.) In it, you’ll find a wealth of information surrounding nonprofit and giving trends in the digital realm. We’ve touched upon the importance of increasing engagement and one time vs. life long nonprofit supporters. We wanted to share M+R’s findings with you.

Across the board, one-time gifts remain the largest source of online donations. However, over the course of a year, the percentage of monthly giving programs has increased across all nonprofit organization types. It’s interesting to note that the percentage of donations from one off donations to monthly giving shares a similar ratio across all classes of nonprofits except for organizations in the wildlife and animal welfare category. Their monthly giving programs account for an impressive 23% of their contributions.

As you can see, one time donations are usually given in higher sums while recurring donations are made more often, but in small increments; accumulating more donations over a longer period of time. This is true across all nonprofit categories.The international sector notably has the highest average donation both for one-time and monthly giving, at $148 and $32 respectively. We encourage you to download the rest of the study and to take a look yourself.

 

Learn more about our online donors behavior in our full Donor Insights Study 2007-2010.